Despite the fact that architectural designs are among the most illustrated and dis-
cussed for the information they provide on the lost monuments and cultic practices
of antiquity, the significance of the phenomenon itself has been little discussed. Andrew
Burnett has argued that the importance of the so-called architectura numismatica
has been overdone, pointing out that of the 818 types on the imperial coinage of
the reign of Vespasian (ad69 –79), only 34 are architectural (Burnett 1999: 156)
(fig. 11.8). But by treating the subject under the heading of public building and
architecture rather than religion, a more meaningful perspective from which to con-
sider these types has perhaps been missed. For the obvious point about buildings
on Roman coins, imperial and provincial, is that they are mostly temples or altars.
Despite the occasional appearance of more obviously secular structures such as Nero’s
Market, Trajan’s Forum, or the Colosseum, buildings mostly appear on Roman coins
not quapublic architecture, but as religious monuments.
They are, in a sense, the numismatic correlates to the section on buildings in the
Res Gestae(“The Achievements”), Augustus’ inscriptional autobiography (chapters
19 –21). The majority of them are temples, and they appear as signs of the emperor’s
extraordinary piety and generosity, not primarily as indications of his devotion to
public works. Not that these are omitted or unconnected – in the same passage
Augustus also mentions his restoration of the Theater of Pompey and the Via Flaminia,
just as the coins celebrate his restoration of the roads. The appendix to the inscrip-
tion also mentions his immense expenses on wider acts of euergetism in Rome and
elsewhere – theatrical displays, shows, moneys donated to cities damaged by earth-
quakes, and gifts to individuals. But the temples take pride of place, not merely because
he built more of them than any other class of building, but because their construc-
tion was of particular significance for the restoration and maintenance of the Roman
community’s cultic and religious life, which was an immensely important theme.
Images of temples on Roman coins bespeak the emperor’s exemplary devoutness,
especially when he is their author or restorer. In the same ways as other kinds of
religious symbols we will go on to look at, temples served as potent emblems of
communal religious identity, which was also an important element in the civic and
ethnic identities of ancient communities. This relationship is perfectly encapsulated
in the slogan “Great is Diana of the Ephesians,” which the people of Ephesus took
up in response to the preaching of the apostle Paul, whose activities, they believed,
threatened both their goddess andtheir city (Acts 19.23 – 41).148 Jonathan WilliamsFigure 11.8 Roman gold aureusof Vespasian (ad69–79), depicting the temple of Vesta.
19 mm.